706 THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIIE MIND. and figures which are some of the main powers and beauties of poesy, do so gloriously exalt the matter as to give a sublime im- agination its proper relish and delight. So when a boar is chased in hunting, His nostrils flames expire, And his red eye-balls roll with living fire. DEVDES. When Ulysses withholds and suppresses hisresentment, His wrath comprese Recoiling, mutter'd thunderin his breast. POPE. But especially where the subject isgrand, the poet fails not to represent it in all its grandeur. So when the supremacy of a God is described, He sees with equal eye, as Godofall, A Hero perish, or a sparrow fall: Atoms or systems, into ruit: hurl'd, And now a bubble búrst, and row a world. POPE. These sort ofwritings have a natural tendency " to enlarge the capacity of the mind, and make sublime ideas familiar to it." And instead of running always to the ancient heathen p'oesy, with this design, we may with equal if not superior ad- vantage, apply ourselves to converse with some of the best of our modern poets, as well as with the writings of the prophets, and the poetical parts of the Bible, viz, the Book of Job and the Psalms, in which sacred authors we shall find sometimes more sublime ideas, more glorious descriptions, more elevated language, than the fondest critics have ever found in any of the heathen versifiers either of Greece or Rome ; for the eastern writersuse and allow much stronger figures and tropes than the western. Now there are many, and great, and sa- cred advantages to be derived from this sort of enlargement of the mind. It will lead us into more exalted apprehensions of the great God pur Creator than ever we had before. It will en- tertain our thoughts with holywonder and amazement, while we contemplate that being who created these various, works of sur- prising greatness, and surprising smallness; who.has displayed most inconceivable; wisdom in the contrivance of all the parts, powers and motions of these little animals invisible to the naked eye ; who has manifested a most divine extent of knowledge, power and greatness, in forming, moving and managing the most extensive bulk of the heavenly bodies, and in surveying and comprehending all those unmeasurable spaces in which they move. Fancy with all her images is fatigued and overwhelmed in billowing the planetary worlds through such immense stages, such astonishing journies as these are, and resigns its piace
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